THE organisation running Worcestershire Royal Hospital is already £800,000 behind its financial plan just four months into the year.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which also runs Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – has been under significant financial pressures in recent years and ended the 2013-14 fiscal year with a £14.2 million deficit.

The organisation has pledged to work its way back to a positive position over the next few years, predicting a £9.8 million deficit at the end of this year.

But a report presented at a meeting of the trust’s board on Wednesday, September 3 showed its deficit already stood at £3.8 million at the end of July - £800,000 greater than forecast.

Deputy chief executive Chris Tidman said many hospital trusts across the country were in a similar position

“There are significant pressures on the majority of acute hospitals across the county,” he said.

“We are almost victims of our own success – people want to come to our hospitals, which is great, but we need to ramp up our capacity.”

Although the trust received a greater income than predicted in July, the county’s two accident and emergency departments were also busier than expected, with almost 10 per cent more patients than forecast.

This in turn led to the trust having to pay for more temporary staff, who are generally more expensive than permanent staff.